First, let me state my personal conviction that you never finish a good poem. It stays with you forever, in your mind. In a quiet moment, a line will be remembered with a clarity that is almost painful in its beauty. More often than not, that memory will lead you back to rereading the poem in its entirety. There is always something fresh, something new, in it- some new understanding, some new and wondrous appreciation for a metaphor, image. A good poem is a joy, always.That said, Edna St. Vincent Millay is among those poets, besides Shakespeare, who lit my adolescent fire for poetry. “The rain Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh Upon the glass and listen for reply”What romantic heart of any age could not respond to the loneliness in this line, or the lines after. “thus in winter stands the lonely tree”Have we not all felt like this, or something akin?Renascence & Other Poems was the first published collection of her poems. I don’t know enough about formal poetry to critique style or meter by any standard. I know only that I am not shy about stealing (with accreditation) a line or two of hers in my own attempts at poetry. The opening poem Renascence fosters a chant like vocalization that after a while seems oppressive, but the sense of a joyous rebirth, throughout this longer poem, eventually makes the couplet rhyme essential, and thus, forgivable. It could be done no other way.Other verses in other styles have the same lyrical beauty, and the sonnets are splendidly unique.To paraphrase the first line of her poem God’s World- Edna, I can not hold the close enough!
In this book of poetry, the descriptions of nature is exquisite and imagery is marvellous. In the title poem "Renascence" Millay is eloquent about the core of the universe consisting of God, death, living, suffering and also the beauties of the world. "The heart can push the sea and landFarther away on either handThe soul can split the sky in twoAnd let the face of God shine through..."Millay explores the beauty of nature, and speaks of love and loss at the same time. The poems are about a perfect autumn and flowered fields, about starting a tavern for grey-eyed people, witch-wives, broken heart, and short poems like "shattering." "The Suicide", touched me--"CURSE thee, Life, I will live with thee no moreThou hast mocked me, starved me, beat my body sore!And all for a pledge that was not pledged by me,I have kissed thy crust and eaten sparinglyThat I might eat again, and met thy sneersWith deprecations, and thy blows with tears,—Aye, from thy glutted lash, glad, crawled away,As if spent passion were a holiday!"At first glance, her poems may seem very simplistic as her lines are short and themes universal. She does not go for complex rhyming or stream of consciousness. Some of the poems are more like songs. The language is beautiful, metaphors don't hit hard and tends more towards nature even when she is writing about the human emotions and feelings."I WILL be the gladdest thingUnder the sun!I will touch a hundred flowersAnd not pick one...."Renascence and Other Poems is not just about beautiful language but it is about our emotions, feelings, the beauty of nature and the pure enjoyment that comes from reading great poetry.
Do You like book Renascence And Other Poems (2011)?
Meg gave me this as a DailyLit gift a couple weeks ago when I needed it, and she recommended "take one before bedtime" and I did. Well I tried. Practice is hard.Poetry, I don't know you very well, but it's pretty awesome when you work out. This collection starts with a couple of longer pieces, which I liked a lot, particularly "Interim".Here 'twas as if a weed-choked gateHad opened at my touch, and I had steppedInto some long-forgot, enchanted, strange,Sweet garden of a thousand years agoAnd suddenly thought, "I have been here before!"
—Lizzie
Edna St. Vincent Millay is one of my all-time favorite poets. I really love and feel deep connection with her, and have for several years. I have "The Selected Poetry of..." back home in a box somewhere. This book was good, although it left out plenty of great poems that are in that other book. It did, however, include "Renascence," "Interim," "Sorrow" and several others that are just mesmerizing. I can't resist the temptation to put some of my favorite lines here...Millay on depression:"Sorrow like a ceaseless rain Beats upon my heart."Millay on breakups:"Time does not bring relief; you all have lied Who told me time would ease me of my pain! I miss him in the weeping of the rain;I want him at the shrinking of the tide"
—April
The prose and romanticism are absolutely lovely. There are poignant lines that gave me pause as I considered their imagery: "Weeds were tall on all the paths that led that way." I was surprised, but also a little unsurprised, to learn that much of what was included in this collection was written when she was only nineteen years old. The rhyme schemes were sometimes a little too clean, and the drama over a lost love a little too stinging - but the ability to see beauty and meaning in the simplest things was not yet lost to time and age.
—Mary
